Whether the Framework for Professionalising the Public Service that was developed by the National School of Government takes into consideration the fact that there are senior officials within the Public Service without the requisite qualifications; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, how does the Framework intend to ensure that senior positions within the Public Service are filled by qualified and competent persons?

What is the salary level difference between a level 11 post and a level 13 post?

As the Government moves ahead with its plans to freeze public sector wages for the next three financial years to help cut the salary bill and contain a yawning budget deficit, what are the relevant details of salary ranges for public servants and/or workers in 2020?

(a) What number of imbizos has her department held since 1 April 2017, (b) (i) what has been the cost and (ii) what number of tenders have been issued for the imbizos and (c) who have the tenders been issued to?

Whether (a) her department and/or (b) any entities reporting to her are funding, including by way of discretionary funding, any institution of research and development (i) domestically and/or (ii) internationally; if so, (aa)(aaa) what are the names of the specified institutions and (bbb) what are their functions, (bb) from what date has her department or any entity reporting to her been funding them and (cc) what amount has her department contributed towards such funding?

Whether (a) her department and (b) each entity reporting to her appointed transaction advisors for tenders in the period 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2016; if so, (i) who were the transaction advisors that were appointed for the tenders, (ii) for which tenders were they appointed, (iii) what was the pricing for the tenders in question and (iv) what amount were the transaction advisors paid?

(1) Which entities reporting to her (a) have a board in place and (b) do not have a board in place, (i) of those that have a board, (aa) when was each individual board member appointed and (bb) when is the term for each board lapsing and (ii) how many (aa) board members are there in each board and (bb) of those board members of each entity are female; (2) with reference to entities that do not have boards in place, (a) who is responsible for appointing the board and (b) when will a board be appointed?

Whether any staff of (a) the National School of Government (NSG) and (b) reporting to her were awarded any contracts or agreements to conduct business with any state entity in the (i) 2014-15, (ii) 2015-16 and (iii) 2016-17 financial years; if so, what are the (aa)(aaa) names and (bbb) professional designations of the staff members and (bb)(aaa) details of the contract(s) and/or agreement(s) awarded and (bbb) amounts in each case?

What is the total number of Government employees who are currently on the state’s personnel salary system in each (a) national and (b) provincial department?

MINISTRY: PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA NATIONAL ASSEMBLY QUESTION FOR WRITTEN REPLY DATE:10 FEBRUARY 2017 QUESTION NO.: 70 MR A P VAN DER WESTHUIZEN (DA) TO ASK THE MINISTER OF PUBLIC SERVICE AND ADMINISTRATION: What amount has been spent by Government on the Open Government Partnership since its inception to date and (b) in what ways did the public service benefit from the specified partnership? NW74E REPLY: A: South Africa joined the Open Government Partnership (OGP) in September 2011. Since then, the Ministry of Public Service and Administration has spent R25, 546, 000. 00. B: The Open Government Partnership- South Africa (OGP-SA) is geared towards supporting the advancement a developmental state that would result in greater efficiency, higher productivity and promote the goal of a better life for all. More importantly this program is centered on advancing the governance agenda that would respond to citizen’s needs. The OGP-SA programme aims to bring government directly to the people and enhancing the relationship between government and citizen. The programme does this by: Developing systems and enhancing mechanisms for public participation; Providing support for the packaging and dissemination of government departments’ information to citizens; Providing avenues and innovate methods for citizen feedback on government processes; Developing strategies and strengthening government partnerships with civil society Championing and advocating for open government principles across the three spheres of government and organs of state. Beyond promoting and enhancing government – civil society collaboration on policy formulation through co-creation on commitments in the OGP National Action Plans, the MPSA has played an advocacy role in the promotion of the values of Open Government within and outside government. Through advocacy, the OGPSA has managed to lobby government to mainstream the openness in its programmes. Results of this lobbying and engagement include the creation of: Municipal Money”, an open local government budget data portal which provides citizens and other stakeholders with access to comparable, verified information on the financial performance of each municipality. Municipal Money aims to promote transparency and citizen engagement through the visualisation and ‘demystification’ of information about municipal spending. Through the Open Government Partnership, the South African government, along with a team from the private sector and civil society, launched a national open data portal project. The objective of the portal is to create a platform to enhance citizen access to government open data as well as showcase software applications that were built using South African government open data. The inclusion of a chapter (Chapter 10) on A Digital Society in the National Integrated ICT Policy White Paper issued on 28 September 2016. Furthermore, national departments are implementing commitments under the OGP country action plan namely: Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation: Strengthening Citizen- Based Monitoring. In partnership with civil organization, this commitment specifically focuses on enhancing active citizen participation in monitoring the delivery of services at government frontline points. National Treasury: Open Budgeting. This commitment involves citizens in the budget process from planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, enabling them to have a firmer grasp on how national resources are generated, distributed and reported upon. This aligns with the OGP values of access to information and public accountability. Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs: Back to Basics Programme. The objectives of this commitment are to ensure that citizens have basic sets of tools by which they can hold their municipalities to account and measure whether they are living up to their commitments. This initiative resonates with the OGP’s emphasis on greater accountability and transparency. Department of Environmental Affairs: Development an integrated and publicly accessible portal for environmental management information. To enable better engagement and informed decision making by citizens on environmental sensitive areas, this commitment seeks to integrate spatial data on biodiversity, ecosystems, water, agriculture, protected areas, conservation areas, air quality priority areas, etc. As part of access to information entrenched in the OGP values, this commitment will allow easy and unrestricted access to spatial environmental data and support the citizens constitutional right to information. Department of Public Service and Administration: Implement South Africa’s action plan on the G20 High Level Principles on Beneficial Ownership Transparency to improve the transparency of legal persons and arrangements in order to protect the integrity and transparency of the global financial system. This commitment aims at preventing misuse of and ensure transparency of legal persons and arrangements. It relates with the OGP’s principles transparency and access to information. South Africa’s participation in the OGP has benefited the public service through the promotion of constitutional values such as public participation and the emphasis on ethical conduct and responsiveness to citizens. The increased engagement with communities and co-creation of national commitments as well as other citizen’s activities on the OGP has positively enhanced public participation in government programmes. The OGP is also piloting the implementation of Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (Goal 16) through a partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Statistics South Africa. Such partnerships ensures that the Open Government agenda is infused into both national and international programmes of government. END